Day 163

Yesterday, the carpet installers arrived to lay the carpet, but since the furnace had not yet been turned on, it was way too cold in the house for them to unroll it. They did do some prep work of laying out the padding and nailing down the tack strips.

I think that the furnace is ready to be fired up but is waiting for electricity. I expected the electricians to be back on the job yesterday, but they weren't. Most of our light have been hooked up and they just have a bit more work to do.

The plumbers worked last Friday and have all the sinks and fixtures in place except for the kitchen because we are still waiting for the countertop. They have the hot water tanks in place, but are waiting for the softener to be installed before filling them. They also began setting the toilets.

Also, last Friday the closet shelves were installed.

View of living room from front door

Right side of master closet

Left side of master closet

Elizabeth's room showing closet

Patrick's room showing closet

Anna and Abigial's room showing their closet AKA toy room in the Annagail Suite

Bonus room AKA sleeping quarters of the Annagail Suite

Kitchen in the early morning light

Kitchen pantry and desk

Day 156

The cabinets are nearing completion and the electricians have been busy at work. We have switches and many operable lights now. It is amazing to see the place come alive at night. I have been pleased seeing all of our light selections in the house and there are more than enough to make things very bright and cheery.

Here is a view from the living room looking into the kitchen and at the man of the house.

Day 152

Cabinets! Our cabinets were scheduled to begin installing on Monday the 17th, so imagine my surprise when the truck pulled up Friday with them! Quite a pleasant surprise! I think these will really change the look and feel of the kitchen and bathrooms. The gentleman who is installing them is an Amish man who now lives at the old homestead where my husband's grandparents lived and my father-in-law grew up. What a small world!

Day 147

I was surprised to come home from church and see that the flooring crew was working on a Sunday. They got all of the downstairs vinyl flooring laid which takes up the majority of the first floor. We chose vinyl because we have four active, young children and we wanted something durable and scrubbable (is that a word?). Vinyl was the most economical of all our hard surface choices. This one has the look of ceramic tiles and looks perfect with our wall color. I don't really have a photo that adequately shows what it looks like. This one is a bit dark, but when I try to lighten the photo, the flooring no longer looks like what it looks like in real life. Perhaps I need to take new photo when the lighting is better.

Day 146

I have neglected to take pictures the last couple of days, but the painting is complete and the vinyl flooring is being installed as I type.

I have decided add a photo of the house we are replacing. This is probably my favorite aspect of this house - the overall view from the outside.

Day 142

Lined up and ready! Our beautifully stained doors are stained, sealed and awaiting installation. Here are several lined up in the living room.

Day 142

A-door-able in white, too! These are the closet doors from my oldest daughter's bedroom. She begged to be different and didn't want stained trim and tan walls in her room but instead proposed white trim and blue walls. We struck a deal with our painter and she got her way.

Day 135

The trim carpentry is complete and the stain has been applied. The stain is brushed on and then hand rubbed. Then a lacquer coat is sprayed on. Nail holes are then filled with a matching wood putty and all the wood is lightly sanded. Dust is cleaned off and then a sealer coat with a satin finish is sprayed on.
This is the view from the front door.

Day 128

The brick hearth was built last Friday. I beleive this brick we selected is called Stratford. I like it because it is varigated and just a little bit scruffy. My husband likes it because it makes me happy, but is not TOO scruffy. :) Here the children are modeling for what I hope to be the first of many fireplace snapshots. You can see here that the trim carpenters have begun work on the wood mantel. It is made of poplar and will be stained.

Day 120

The shutters are up! The house has a much more finished appearance now.
Our trim carpenters arrived on site today. They seem to be a nice crew and they got most of the upstairs door install and cased out as well as started the baseboards and stair trim.

Day 108

The exterior of he house is coming close to completion. On the inside, the drywall has been completely mudded and merely needs sanding to complete. Monday, the ceilings received their spanish lace finish. The painter is scheduled to prime on Friday. We have picked out all of our interior trim and it will be delivered some time next week when our trm carpenter will be ready to begin.

Day 108

Today, our siding crew arrived with our window cornices. They were waiting for these to come in so that they could finish siding. We were presented with a choice as to how to install them. Unfortunately, our relationship with this crew has deteriorated and therefore this whole discussion became more complicated than it should have.

Day 107

The Porch railings are up! This may become my favorite room in the house. I have this very strong urge to plop a little white rocker out here and just sit and watch the house being finished. :)

Day 102

Patrick is pointing out our new electric meter. Today power lines were brought to the house and our meter was hooked up.

Meanwhile, the siding crew began work on the porch ceilings which are an aluminum soffit material in the same color as our siding.

DAY 100!!!

Celebrating 100 days of building!!!

The house is looking great! The siding is well on it's way to being finished. The porch is coming along. On the inside, the drywall is up and being taped and mudded. It is really looking like a real house now!

Day 93

Porch posts! We had a meeting with the siding crew, our builder and the gentleman who sold us our porch system to discuss exactly where these posts were to go and how the system goes together. This is a vinyl porch railing system (No painting!) and the siding crew had never installed one before. Here you can see some of the posts in place. I can't wait to see the rest of it!

This photo is an official "crack" photo. I have regularly been taking photos from the same spots so we can see the building progress. This one is uncropped and taken from a particular crack in the road. I also take photos from a rock embedded in the ground at the end of our driveway - the "rock" photos. I suppose I should watch who I tell I am taking "rock and crack" photos to because it sounds like I am up to no good.

Day 93 More Drywall

In 2 days, our drywall hanging crew is nearly done. The entire house with the exception of part of the 1st floor bath and the garage has drywall. It looks fantastic! Another crew will be coming in to tape and mud it.

Day 92

Drywall!!! Our drywalling crew began work this morning and in one day got all of the 2 nd floor ceilings up, half of the 1 st floor ceilings, one of the bedrooms, the bonus room, and the master bath done. It is really starting to look like the inside of the house! Very exciting!

Day 89

The siding continues. This is the south side of the house. There were some quality issues we had with the instalation, but hopefully now that these have been addressed, things will be improved when the siding in the front is intalled.

Day 88: Batt Insulation

Our new home's walls have been completely insulated and a vapor barrier installed. The wall are ready fro drywall which is scheduled to begin Monday.

Day 85: Spray insulation

In just a couple of hours, our entire home has been sprayed with foam insulation. Here is a view of the living room and dining room.

Day 85: Siding

Snapshot of the siding on the south side of the house. It's nearly complete. I love the little windows in that bump out - they look so cute now!

Day 85

Sprayed insulation: Today, a big truck from the insulation company showed up. After, all the windows were covered in plastic, the process of spraying expanding foam insulation onto the interior of every outside wall began. One of the reasons we wanted this done was because our house basically sits in the middle of farmland. The wind can really whip through those fields and this should provide an airtight barrier. We have witnessed what the wind can do in our current old farmhouse. When the wind blows in the winter, our curtains on the inside move! We are looking forward to having a toasty warm home next winter!

Day 79

Today the new house is quiet. Amazingly, NO ONE is working on it at all today. I at least expected the siding crew to be here.

I have an appointment with the Closet Tamers company to discuss what shelves, rods and organizational features we have in our closets as well as get a price to do the cabinets in our laundry room. We are trying to get all of our finances planned out.

Day 78

Day 78: Siding installation in progress. The color is Classic Cream. Kind of a yellowish cream or creamy yellow. It depends on the light on it. This crew only worked a half day and things have been quiet on the homefront for the rest of the day.

Day 74

A decision made! In a sea of many choices, today I made this one! Actually, we had already picked out a kitchen sink along with all of our plumbing fixtures, but the man of the house was not happy with our kitchen sink options. So I went to another supplier that our builder recomended. I requested prices on three sinks only to find out that two of them were out of our budget. But the second one pictured above was nearly the exact same price as the one at the top that is a rather plain jane lighter gauge sink. So, we are getting that lovely sink!

The plumbers completed their work today and called for an inspection. Unfortunately, the inspecter found something that needs to be corrected. So tomorrow, the plumber return and make his changes and call for another inspection.

Our lovely "classic cream" siding was delivered today. It should start to go up tomorrow morning!

Day 73

The mechanicals are close to being complete. The plumber is running gas lines for my fireplace, range, and stove today and has just a few things to finish up tomorrow morning. Both the HVAC and the Electrical work have been done and passed inspection. Once the plumbing work has been inspected our builder will order a framing inspection. Once that has passed, the house will be insulated and drywall will begin to go up. Things will really begin to take shape then!

The siding will start to go up at the end of this week and the outside will really change, as well.

Today, WaterWorks was here running lines for our purified drinking water and preparing for our duel tank softener system. I can't wait for the time when I no longer need to haul 19 gallons of water home every two weeks!

We are in the mode of making many decision right now. Cabinets, lighting, switches, paint, sinks, porch posts, appliances, door hardware, stain color, bath accessories and much more have to be thought about and choices made. It can seem overwhelming! I keep praying for God's wisdom for all of our choices because this home is truly His. We just want to do what is right!

Our manablock system. I keep wanting to call it our water fuse box. :) There is a separate shut off for every plumbed item in our home. Cool, huh?

Day 65

Haven't updated lately because the progress of late isn't as visible and I haven't taken many photos. But the mechanical contractors have been quite busy. The HVAC has been completed to the 1st inspection stage, as well as all of the electrical wiring. The plumbers are working as I type and should be done within a couple of days.

Next comes insulation and drywall. Once drywall goes up, our builder said that it should be approximately 60 days to completion! The end is in sight! We should be insulated next week and drywall will follow immediately after.

Our siding contractor will begin installing the soffits this week and the siding will go up next week. Then, I will have some new pictures!

Day 54

Day 54: Transformtions!
AEP showed up today to install our new transformer (shown here in a watercolor rendering). We are one step closer to having power in our new home.

Day 53

Day 53 Electricity...E-lectricity

Although we weren't expecting them to begin for another week, our electrician showed up today to do some work. They wanted to get the boxes for the services installed quickly because they have to be inspected by our electric company before we can be hooked up with power. While they were here, they also tacked up switch and outlet boxes as well as some of our recessed can lights. They also repaired our low hanging wire that goes from our pole to the barn that was damaged during last week's storm. He made a comment that it looked pretty dangerous, so I am very thankful to have that done!

Day 52

Day 52: Electrical Walkthough
We met with our electrician as well as our builder to walk though the house and discuss where all of our lights, switches and outlets should be. I never realized how hard it would be to make those decisions. Barry and I had been discussing what we wanted and our builder and electrician provided their wisdom and experience. We got most everything figured out in about two hours, but they did say that we should be talking with the the place we will purchase our lights from to iron our some unclear details on light placement. They also said they would need to have our cabinet manufacturer come out and draw where the center kitchen island will be so that they can place the light over it correctly. The only problem is that we haven't picked a cabinet company or selected cabinets yet.

So, Barry and I took the afternoon and picked out all of our lighting fixtures at Light World. The lady we were working with there was very helpful in light placement and finding appropriate lights for the right places. Now, we just need to get her quote and see if we are within our budget.

Then we still had some time, so we went to Harlan Cabinets and picked out cabinets. We should get a quote on that in about a week. Hopefully we are within our budget on that, as well.

Then we went home and I thought my head might explode trying to make that last decision of the day: what to fix for dinner! Ü

Day 47

Day 47: Garage Door

We have a garage door we can close! Our poor Overhead Door guy arrived with a door and pulled everything out of his truck before he realized that we have an 8'-0" high opening and he had a 7'-0" door. So he had to pack everything back up and go back to get the right one. But we did eventually get a door, but there is no opener yet. That will come after the home is drywalled.

Inside Garage with New Door

Elizabeth's Ductwork

A View from the Master Bedroom

Here's a photo taken looking out of the master bedroom window. You can see our lovely new geothermal trenches as well as our green roof and beautiful view of our neighbor's pasture across the road. We never realized how pretty and rolling it was until we saw it from this view up high!

Day 47

Day 47: Geothermal Trenches
The only section of our pasture that up untl now had not been torn up and reduced to mud, is gone. The front of our yard now has two 250'-0" long trenches that are 5'-0" deep. These will hold black tubing that will carry water underground for our closed loop geothermal HVAC system. The tubing can be seen here laying coiled up next to the left trench. They did end up hitting our current home's septic tile which they did patch. Hopefully well enough to last us a few more months.

Day 47

Here is where our geothermal lines leave and re-enter our house through the basement wall.

Geothermal Tubing

Day 47

In the trenches! Today the trenches are being dug for the tubing for our geothermal system. They digging two 200' trenches that are 5'-0" deep where they will lay in coiled tubing. They will also lay tubing at the 3'-0" level. This is for our closed loop geothermal HVAC system.

Day 46

Ductwork! I had to explain to the children that this is a DUCT not a DUCK. If there is any quacking eminating from this, there is a problem! Ü This is a shot of our main ventilation chaseway as viewed looking down from the attic. We will lose a bit of space out of our upstairs hall and 1st floor school room for this. But I guess heat and A/C is worth that! The duct work should be complete within a week!

Day 37

Day 37: Green Gables! Yes, we chose green for our roof shingle color! Our roofing crew arrived at 5:30am this morning and began laying shingles. I must say they are very fast and I was quite impressed when I witnessed one of them SPRINTING from the bottom of the main roof to the top. These men appear to be as comfortable walking on a roof with an 11 on 12" pitch as they do on the ground. Personally, if it were me, I would be tied on with a safety harness, hanging on, and CRAWLING, but I suppose that is why they are ones roofing my house and not me! The front is nearly done here and you can see that we do indeed have green gables!

Day 36

Day 36: Septic System
Last Friday two gentlemen from the Dept. of Health came out to our property and inspected our soil. Our soil passed the dryness test. The dryness test is VERY scientific. A guy bores a hole and takes a soil sample at the septic field depth which was 14" deep in our case and rolls it between the palms of his hand. If he can roll a little dirt snake that is 1/8" or smaller before the soil breaks apart, then it is too wet. No tiny snakes were happening in our yard so we were good to go.

We said "dry prayers" all weekend so it wouldn't rain and our certified septic installer came Monday morning to install our septic field. When you tell people you are putting in a new septic system (especially in our county) you get to hear every septic horror story. We heard numerous tales of folks who have been in their homes for years and still haven't been approved for their field to be installed so they have to pay to have their tanks pumped once a month. So we were THRILLED to say the least that we are over this hurdle.